00:00There is a classification of planets out there in the cosmos, colloquially referred to by
00:07astronomers as eyeball planets.
00:10Their moniker comes from their appearance, which looks like, well, eyeballs.
00:13But why do they look like that?
00:15It all has to do with tidal locking.
00:17Just like our moon is tidally locked to Earth, with only one side constantly facing us.
00:21But if that cosmic body was instead a moon or a planet with water and continents like
00:25Earth, but was tidally locked to a much larger object like a star, one side would likely
00:29be in constant sunlight, with a perpetual twilight area of liquid oceans.
00:34The other side of the planet would be in constant darkness and would likely be entirely frozen,
00:38giving the planet a pupil-iris sclera appearance.
00:41What's even wilder about these eyeball planets, however, is that previous studies into their
00:45planetology suggest the twilight oceanic areas could be habitable, with fertile regions for
00:50growing and temperature control due to constant pseudo-daytime.
00:54Astronomers also say that the constant sun side isn't necessarily a dry, arid place either.
00:58If there is water present, we could discover large warm oceans just like on Earth.
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